Claim No: IP-2021-000080 - [2024] EWHC 396 (IPEC)

The Claim was issued in August 2021 and the CMC took place in July 2022 before HHJ Hacon. The CMC Order is dated 26 January 2023. That Order granted retrospective permission to the Claimants to file and serve Re-Amended Particulars of Claim; to the Defendants to file and serve a consequentially Amended Defence and Counterclaim; and to the Claimants to file and serve a consequentially Amended Reply and Defence to Counterclaim. The Judge directed the parties as to the issues to be dealt with at trial and as to the evidence to be served. A three-day trial was, exceptionally, deemed necessary.

Following a subsequent hearing before HHJ Hacon, an order dated 27 July 2023 provided that an application relating to without prejudice material should be heard by a judge other than HHJ Hacon. Originally scheduled for the week commencing 16 October 2023, the hearing took place on 16 January 2024.